If you want to see a full-blown George Strait concert, you better get tickets when his “Cowboy Rides Away” tour gets near you in 2013 or 2014. He announced yesterday that this will be his last tour, though he’s not retiring. He’ll still make new music and play the occasional special show, but won’t go out on tour after this one wraps. George is 60 years old and started playing in a band when he was in high school.

If you’re keeping score in Tim McGraw’s very convoluted lawsuit to be free of Curb Records, Tim won a round yesterday. The Court of Appeals sided with Tim and against Curb, agreeing that Curb couldn’t keep Tim from signing with another record company.

In early 2013, when the next season of American Idol goes live, judge Keith Urban will have some moral support waiting in the wings. Wife Nicole Kidman has made it clear she’ll be there during the live shows, cheering her hubby on.

The “Hell on Wheels” tour kicks off tonight in Indiana. It’s Brantley Gilbert’s first headlining tour, and it includes Uncle Kracker, Brian Davis and Greg Bates. Greg loves the diversity of musical styles on this tour: “That’s what is so great about country music is that you can listen to George Strait and Brantley Gilbert at the same time. You can be fans of both equally. That’s what is going to be so great about going out and playing with him. We are gonna go out and take them on a rollercoaster journey through country music I think.”
Adding fuel to the rumors of Brantley Gilbert and Jana Kramer as a couple are Eric Gunderson and Stephen Barker Liles of Love and Theft – here’s what they said they saw: “[Eric] We were at the airport the other day and we were on a flight with um...some guy...beard...sings about country being country wide. [Stephen] He was on that flight? [Eric] Yeah, he was on our flight and then we got off and there was like a welcoming committee of Jana. I was like, ‘What the heck are you doing here?’ She was like, ‘Oh, picking up my boyfriend.’ So, I guess that’s something I can say now, ‘cause I gave it away. But, yeah, I think they’re...they’re dating!” They just celebrated their first #1 song – “Angel Eyes” – and plan to remember the feeling forever: “It’s still gonna be one of the coolest milestones that’s ever happened to either of us in our careers as a duo and individually as well.” 
Hunter Hayes has his first platinum plaque, commemorating sales of over a million copies of the song “Wanted.” He’s also the youngest male performer to hit the top of the Billboard Country chart ever, and he’s pretty excited about it all: “I feel like I’m on top of the world right now, I’m just like floating – it’s awesome! It’s so weird it puts it in a perspective for you. I just started two years ago singing ‘Storm Warning’ for everybody, and then we broke ‘Wanted’ on the scene. I just crossed my fingers, said my prayers and I was hoping for the best and – here we are!”